Domain Names and Google Search Engine Ranking

Using product-service-relevant keywords in your domain names significantly improves the ranking of Web pages. However, the presence of even an incidental string of letters that spell adult words or the deliberate use of words such as ?girls ? can block your non-adult Web site from search results.

Berkeley, CA (PRWEB) May 7, 2004 –

 For your Web site to rank high on Google search results and not be blocked, you should use keywords reflective of your company s products/services and must avoid the incidental presence of a string of letters that connote adult words, according to DomainMart.

In their site-ranking criteria, Google now gives higher ranking to Web pages for which a search keyword is part of the domain name as well as words in the third-level domain name. The report points out the following implications for domain names:

1.If possible, include the most important keywords that define your company in your domain name.

2.Use of secondary domain names as a doorway to specific pages will increase. The new demand for keyword domain names will boost the demand for domain-name leasing. This will, in turn, put upward pressure on leasing rates and domain-name prices.

3.Since keyword-based ranking is blind to a domain name s extension, the value of extensions other than dot-com will rise, as will leasing demand for active domain names with keywords that also have considerable traffic.

4.There will be an increase in the use of third-level domain names such as appraisal.DomainMart.com, escrow.DomainMart.com, and so forth, where appraisal  and escrow  are keywords.

Google s algorithm also ranks more favorably search keywords in an Internet address  directory name and file name.

On the other hand, Google s SafeSearch feature, designed to filter out links to Web sites with adult content, blocks Websites that contain a string of letters corresponding to adult words, according to a study by CNET.com and a report by Harvard Law School s Berkman Center for Internet Society.

SafeSearch marked as unsafe for children PartsExpress.com, an audio, video, and speaker components Website; JewishSussex.com, a religious Web site; EssexCountyBeeKeepers.org of Topsfield, Mass.; BluesExcuse.SouthBurnett.com.au, an Australian blues band s site; BassExpert.com; and the Anglo-Saxon history site RomansInSussex.co.uk.

The Harvard Law School s Berkman Center for Internet Society reported last week that SafeSearch excludes many innocuous Web pages from search-result listings. The thousands of nonpornographic sites that are excluded include The Pittsburgh Coalition Against Pornography. News sites take a hit too, with articles from Fox News, Wired News, The Baton Rouge Daily News, and some Web logs affected.

SafeSearch can be enabled or disabled through a preferences page. The feature uses a proprietary algorithm that analyzes the pages and classifies them as safe or unsafe for children.

It is no longer enough to avoid adult words in a domain name; you must ensure that an incidental string of letters in your domain name does not correspond to an adult word,  notes Alex Tajirian, President and CEO of DomainMart.

If your site is blocked and does not have a robots.txt file, which is designed to limit automated Web crawlers in various ways, Tajirian suggests that you first contact Google and then contact DomainMart if the issue is not satisfactorily resolved.

DomainMart is a leader in providing domain-name secondary-market services, including appraisal/valuation, auction, escrow and ownership transfer, leasing, parking, management, and protection since 1996.

For more information, please visit http://www.DomainMart.com or contact: